Israel To Press On With ‘Intense Ground Operations’ Against Hamas In Gaza Despite Biden Admin’s Pressure
Also, Israeli air force hits Hezbollah terror targets ‘deep’ in Lebanon.
Israel has vowed to push on with its counter-terrorist operation in Gaza despite mounting pressure from President Joe Biden’s administration. The Israel military “is preparing the continuation of intense ground operations” in Gaza, the country’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant reportedly told the visiting White House Middle East advisor Brett McGurk.
The defense minister’s remarks come as Israel is expected to participate in a multi-national summit in Paris on Friday in a bid to secure the release of remaining Israeli hostages languishing in Hamas captivity since October 7. Israel has agreed to “widen the mandate for the officials” attending the Paris talks but will not halt ongoing military operations in Gaza, the Israeli minister disclosed.
The Israeli military is gearing up to launch an offensive on the terrorist stronghold of Rafah during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan — once the Gaza civilians are safely evacuated from the area, the Israeli media reports indicate.
Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz “reiterated that Israel was prepared to launch a planned Rafah offensive during Ramadan if a hostage deal is not reached by the time the Muslim holy month starts around March 10,” The Times of Israel reported Wednesday.
The Jerusalem Post reported Israeli minister Gallant’s remarks to White House envoy McGurk :
Israel plans to expand the framework for a hostage deal, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk ahead of the latest pending summit on the captives led by CIA Director Willian Burns.
“We will widen the mandate for the officials involved in the negotiations on the hostages,” Gallant said when the two men met in Tel Aviv.
Gallant also underscored for McGurk that the IDF “will continue to expand its ground operation in Gaza.”
McGurk is in Israel after a stop in Egypt to advance a deal to release the remaining 134 captives in Gaza and ensure that Israel has a sufficient plan to ensure the safety of Palestinian civilians should it embark on a military operation in Rafah.
The pending Rafah operation, which has been widely condemned by the international community even before it had been executed, has been one of the pressure levers Israel has used to push Hamas to soften its stance on the terms of a deal.
Biden presses Israel to reach a deal with Hamas before Ramadan
The Biden administration is pressing Israel to abandon the planned offensive on Rafah and cut a deal with Hamas. The Biden White House wants the deal to be finalized as it fears violent Muslim protests and rioting during the month of Ramadan, news reports suggest. A surge in violent anti-Israel protests and Islamic terrorist attacks against Israel often accompanies Ramadan.
Israeli journalist Barak Ravid reported in Axios:
President Biden’s top Middle East adviser Brett McGurk urged Israel to send a delegation to the upcoming hostage talks in Paris, telling Israeli officials there has been progress in the negotiations between Egyptian and Qatari mediators and Hamas, three sources with knowledge of the issue told Axios.
Why it matters: Biden administration officials say they want to try and get a deal before the start of Ramadan in less than three weeks to ensure there is a temporary ceasefire in place during the Muslim holy month.
McGurk told Israeli officials that the Biden administration believes there is an urgent need to get a deal because of the terrible conditions the hostages are being held in and because Ramadan is three weeks away, the three sources told me https://t.co/NMP4Dn4LHH
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) February 22, 2024
IDF destroys terrorist targets in southern Gaza
In line with the defense minister’s statement, the IDF continues to destroy Hamas’s jihadist fighters and terrorist infrastructure — particularly in the southern Gaza stronghold of Khan Yunis. Removing Hamas’s terrorist fighting force in Khan Yunis is key to the much-anticipated Israeli offensive on the Hamas bastion of Rafah on the Egyptian border.
Over the past day, IDF troops have:
📍Western Khan Yunis
Eliminated over 15 terrorists, struck a terrorist site and located AK-47s, grenades, military equipment, explosive devices and Hamas documents.📍Southern Gaza
Destroyed vessels used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.📍Zaytun… pic.twitter.com/Nrk0Bql4i6
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 22, 2024
Over the past day, (…) IDF ground troops continue to engage and kill terrorists and destroy terrorist infrastructure in the area of Khan Yunis,” the military said in a press release Thursday morning. “IDF troops eliminated over 15 terrorists in western Khan Yunis. During targeted raids, the troops located AK-47s, grenades, additional military equipment, as well as additional explosive devices intended to harm the troops. Additionally, IDF directed an aircraft to strike a military site in which a terrorist cell was identified.”
In 24 hours; #IDF forces destroyed many #terrorist infrastructures & killed 20 #Hamas #terrorists, as part of clashes & as part of cooperation w/the #IAF forces & ground forces. #Israel #GazaWar #Gaza #NoCeasefire #StopHamas #NeverAgainisNow pic.twitter.com/Dh1NaJ0GJq
— Ora Levitt 🇮🇱 חיילת צה"ל 🇮🇱 עם ישראל חי (@IDFsoldiergirl) February 22, 2024
IDF intercepts Houthi missile shot at Israeli port city of Eilat
The Israel air defense on early Thursday shot down a missile fired by Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists aimed at the Israel port city of Eilat. The southern Israeli port city is vital for the Jewish State’s growing trade with India and Far-East Asian countries.
The missile attack is part of Yemen-based Houthis attempt to disrupt Israeli commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Adan. Over the weekend, Houthis fired missiles at several Western ships, nearly sinking British-owned cargo ships off the coast of Yemen.
The Israeli TV channel i24NEWS reported:
In the early hours of Thursday morning, Israel’s advanced Arrow air defense system successfully intercepted a ballistic missile over the Red Sea, believed to have been fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The missile was aimed towards Israel, specifically the southern city of Eilat, before being shot down over the Red Sea.
Video footage from Eilat captured the aftermath of the interception, showing smoke trails in the sky.
According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the missile did not breach Israeli airspace, and sirens were activated in Eilat as a precautionary measure against potential falling debris.
This interception marks the sixth time Israel’s Arrow system has neutralized a ballistic missile threat, all amidst ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip. While the Houthis have not yet claimed responsibility for the attack, their past actions indicate “solidarity” with Gaza, where Israel has been engaged in a war with Hamas.
The Arrow defense system has successfully intercepted a missile over the Red Sea.
The missile was launched by Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen toward the Israeli city of Eilat. pic.twitter.com/cjZDW7mt8T
— Eli Kowaz – איליי קואז (@elikowaz) February 22, 2024
Israeli air force hits Hezbollah terror targets ‘deep’ in Lebanon
The Israeli air force carried out strikes on Hezbollah terror targets ‘deep’ inside Lebanon, news reports suggest. “Israeli fighter jets launched the deepest airstrikes yet on Lebanon,” the British newspaper Telegraph reported Thursday.
The latest IDF strikes came in response to Hezbollah’s deadly rocket attacks on northern Israel. “One woman was killed and eight more people were injured as 20 rockets targeted the city of Safed and other areas in the north, according to first responders,” the UK daily noted.
“Safed, which is 13 kilometres from the Lebanese border and hosts an important IDF base, has largely been unaffected by exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. The city has not received evacuation orders unlike swathes of northern Israel,” the newspaper added.
The IDF says it carried out airstrikes with fighter jets against Hezbollah sites in southern Lebanon a short while ago.
The targets included a building in Maroun al-Ras and other infrastructure belonging to the terror group in Kafr Kila and Khaim.
After missile fire on Kiryat… pic.twitter.com/zvoEVusbxL
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) February 22, 2024
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Good.
Breaking news, 3 pieces of Pale shit sprayed cars in traffic with full automatic weapons. Many causalities’.
Clearly, Pales have not had enough yet, step up the punishment.
Biden didnt want Israel to quit. They only wanted “we tried but Israel is a bunch of right wing nuts” points before the election. In other words, they only wanted to be seen pressuring them. They are trying to have it both ways before November.
And you know this how?
Because Biden needs Michigan. They are heavily Muslim now, and “The Squad” has said they are dropping support for Biden because of the US support for Israel. Further the Dems need the College kid vote which is anti-Israel.
However middle-America Dems and East Coast money Dems and some/many? west Coast Dems support Israel.
I’d be surprised if they actually do that–who are they going to vote for?
There is no data from 2008 to 2016 or 2020 to present that supports this speculation. Quite the opposite.
The results of Congressional elections (putting many antisemites in the Democrat caucus) and the polling on college campuses (supporting Hamas and its conduct on October 7) provide substantial supporting evidence.
I hope you’re right but his statements, sincere or not, put Israel (including non-Jewish Israelis) & Jews everywhere at greater risk.
There is no doubt that the wealthy Muslim countries are bribing Quisling Joe to betray Israel. Money is his primary motivation.
Don’t underestimate the role of other considerations (like keeping young people, Arabs and Muslims “on side” with the Democrats and the personal animus Biden and many other members of the Obama administration feel for Netanyahu–and, in at least some cases, for Israelis and Jews more generally).
When the voters are voting their not going to support Biden if he betrays Israel and supports the Muslim Nazis Hamas.
The IDF should treat the Muslims’ Ramadan the same way they treat the Jews’ Yom Kippur
I don’t think an attack would come as a surprise at this point, though.
Not fighting during Ramadan is rubbish. Islamic countries have done it many times, including 1973.
FJB
It’s quite telling that the Arab world hasn’t leaped to the defense of these people. The area’s a hotbed of fanaticism and no one wants them. As Reagan might have said about Israel’s ongoing response, “Boys will be boys.”
From the record over the last 50 years, most of the Middle Eastern countries know what to expect if they mess with Israel. They might talk tough and condemn Israel but they will not attack them. Only Iran is dumb enough to do this but with proxies. Sooner or later Israel will be forced to confront Iran and it won’t be pretty.
Iran should have been dealt with a long time ago.
We should have nuked Tehran in 1979.
I met the late R. Bruce Laingen, the senior US diplomat among the hostages and two of the military hostages (one now deceased). The world would not have been a better place if they had been incinerated by a U.S. weapon.
there is an urgent need to get a deal because of the terrible conditions the hostages are being held in
Gee, and they haven’t been held in those conditions since the beginning?
and because Ramadan is three weeks away
The real urgency, because we wouldn’t want to make the violent people angry by screwing with their faux fasting.
David Harsanyi has a good essay at the Federalist, analyzing the brazen and blatant moral hypocrisy of Dhimmi-crats’ gleeful, enthusiastic and unfettered cheerleading for Ukraine in its war against Russia, as contrasted with their perennial vilification of Israel and their contemptible efforts to hinder and restrain Israel’s righteous and morally just reprisals against the Fakestinian Muslim supremacists, terrorists and Islamofascists of Hamas.
https://thefederalist.com/2024/02/21/biden-would-never-bid-ukraine-to-a-ceasefire-like-he-prods-israel/
This is the left for you.
On the one hand they cannot move fast enough for a ceasefire in Gaza out of a concern for civilian casualties.
On the other hand they cannot do enough to encourage the West to keep funding the Ukraine in an effort to kill more Russians, which results in even more Ukrainian civilian deaths than you will ever see in Gaza.
As has been said before, if the left didn’t have double standards the left wouldn’t have any standards at all.
The reason is graft, our politicians are being bought.
Too true.
I’ll reiterate that crime boss, Biden’s, and, the Dhimm-crats’ kowtowing to and obsequious deference shown to Jew-hating Muslim supremacists, terrorism supporters and Islamofascists in Michigan and elsewhere in the U.S. represents the actual courting of and enabling of Jew-hating supremacists and bigots, as President Trump was falsely and dishonestly accused of doing, in Charlottesville — except, in this case, the supremacists and bigots in question are Muslim, so, the Dhimmi-crats won’t ever criticize or condemn them.
Dear Joe Biden*,
Suck a c*ck.
Sincerely,
Bibi
Lips are probably all Biden has left, everything else has withered, top and bottom.
The arguments urging Israel not to finish the job in Rafah sound like the arguments for the Allies not going into Berlin at the end of WWII.
Pacifists were saying that the Russians would kill too many civilians, and the Nazi war machine was already broken. It was OK if Hitler and his cronies escaped, as long as they promised to be good. History tells that the only mistake with going into Berlin was that Patton should have gone in first before the Russians.
If the Israelis quit now, the remaining Hamas leaders will reorganize and will be back to their previous strength in 5 years or so.
The easiest decision matrix of all time is to listen to the guy who graduated at the bottom of his third tier law school and then do exactly the opposite. This moron has not been right on a single point of foreign policy in his entire way-too-long public career. If Slow Joe said to send nukes to Moscow we should instead send flowers. The best thing that could happen to this nation right now would be for DOCTOR Jill Biden (fresh from surgery and still wearing scrubs) to lead Old Joe into his Wilmington basement and forget where she left him.
Short form, the current governing American administration and the American Left as a whole lust after the destruction of Israel and the death of all its people as much as HAMAS does. Doing what Biden wants will not secure the continued existence of Israel, but rather will hasten its end. Israel has to do what it feels is necessary for survival.
And I note, that such may be grossly untidy as Israel has both nuclear weapons [I’ll let y’all research how many] and ICBM range means of delivery. If backed into a corner, they may decide to take the ones who put them in the corner with them.
Subotai Bahadur
Hamas starting point for peace is the total destruction of Israel and the eradication of Jews world wide and to be honest it’s very hard to tell their position and that of the left apart. They both seem to have the same goal.
“We will widen the mandate for the officials involved in the negotiations on the hostages,” Gallant said when the two men met in Tel Aviv.
The Isreali reps are now authorized to ask: “So, what’s your offer?”
That’s broader than the original mandate to” “Tell them to sod off, then just sit there and glare.”
It’s like these gaggles of chattering class — What’s the right term for a group of the chattering class? A herd? A flock? A “flamboyance” like flamingos? — have no idea what a war is.
Every “solution” being “pressured” for merely has Israel quit blowing up people the big peacemakers are hearing complaints about. None of these brokers care about how many might be killed in Israel, or Gaza, or for how long. They just want some peace, and their flex.
— Anybody who wants a solution could accept and settle the folks from Gaza.
— Anybody who wants a solution could annex and administer Gaza, responsible then for what happens there, and what comes from.
— Anybody who wants a solution could hamstring Hamas for misbehavior: “Every time you bomb Israel, your support cuts in half. You have stuff to bomb with, obviously you have more than you need.”
— Anybody who wants a solution could impose consequences. I’ll believe they are honest brokers when they tell Hamas they, themselves will deliver rockets into Gaza 1:1 for rockets shot out of there … and who’s got better aim?
This smells, looks, and sounds like a bad terror move in the making. . Back when the Ukraine had a duly elected President who actually at least vaguely resembled a fair minded what’s best for the nation sort of chap/ As he began to shift some things round to make things better for his naion he ws taken out in a US backed, enguineered, funded, managed coup. They broke with tradition and did NOT assassinte or execute him. They replaced him with a puppet, who yet retains the reins, and has been naught but trouble, death, economic disaster, massive emigration fleeing the mess he continues to make. And Uncle Stupid has all but held his hand as he has proven himself an eedjit of the worst sort time and again.
I cannot think of a single foreign government into which we have NOT meddled. I may have missed one or two…